The Chicago Wolves gained much more clarity to their goaltending picture Friday morning, just hours ahead of start of the Calder Cup Finals.
Goaltender Amir Miftakhov is back in time for Game 1 against the Toronto Marlies on Friday night.
The Carolina Hurricanes returned him to the Wolves on Friday after recalling him Thursday just ahead of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. Carolina holds a 3-2 series lead on the Vegas Golden Knights going into Sunday’s Game 6 at T-Mobile Arena. Game 2 of the Marlies-Wolves series is also Sunday, a matinee on Chicago ice.
Frederik Andersen had started all 16 games for the Hurricanes before Brandon Bussi took the net for this past Tuesday night’s Game 4. Bussi has since won both starts to put the Hurricanes on the brink of their first Stanley Cup championship since 2006. Pyotr Kochetkov served as Carolina’s back-up.
Meanwhile in Chicago, the Wolves have been through their own goaltending uncertainty. After taking all 14 playoff starts, Cayden Primeau could not go for Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals last Sunday night at Colorado. Miftakhov, whose only seven minutes of playoff action had been in Game 5 against the Eagles, made his first career Calder Cup Playoff start in replacing Primeau for Game 6.
With the Wolves facing elimination that night, Miftakhov’s 36 saves carried them to a 3-2 win. A night later for Game 7, another elimination game for Chicago, Miftakhov delivered 39 stops in a 4-3 victory that sent the Wolves on to the Calder Cup Finals.
Primeau’s status for the Calder Cup Finals remains unknown. If Primeau is not available, the Wolves have Ruslan Khazheyev on hand. Khazheyev, whose lone game with the Wolves this season was on Nov. 9, backed up Miftakhov in both Games 6 and 7. They do not have any goaltenders rostered beyond Khazheyev, however.
Miftakhov, an offseason signing last summer, made 28 regular-season appearances and finished 12-8-7 | 3.25 | .880. Primeau joined the Wolves last November, played 39 games, and went 21-11-7 | 2.41 | .916. In his 14 playoff starts, Primeau is 8-6 | 2.58 | .919.
No small part of this situation comes down to the Hurricanes and Wolves each still playing so late into the postseason. Carolina is trying to become the first NHL organization to win the Stanley Cup and the Calder Cup in the same year since the New Jersey Devils did so in 1995 (alongside their AHL former affiliate, the Albany River Rats).
The Marlies, meanwhile, are far more set in net. They have Artur Akhtyamov, who has carried them for most of their previous four rounds of postseason play along with back-up Dennis Hildeby. Ken Appleby and Vyacheslav Peksa are also on the Toronto roster and both have AHL experience.
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